Author: Patrick Jennings

I travel, when I can. Write, when inspired. Photograph, where there's beauty. Make films, for a living. Oh, and I play a decent didjiridu.
Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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Immovable vs Unstoppable, Ucluelet Storm Season, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

For the Survivors

As sea falls back into sea
Prepares for a new assault on the shore
Its hardened rock
Broken but not brittle
Recalcitrant
Beneath the bruised sky
Of abuses relentless

I am reminded
Of the survivors

I came for the storms
For the thrash and hiss
Of the sea upon the rock
The immovable
Resisting the unstoppable

And it is
In a manner
Difficult to describe
So utterly beautiful
And moving

But I wish
In this moment
Only for the peace
Of a clear sky
And an ocean
Becalmed

Continue reading For the Survivors
Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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Outbound, BC Ferries, Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo, Strait of George, British Columbia, Canada

Outbound ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #290

You walk away
With a crushing finality
Ramrod iron spine
Heels strident clacks
Carom across the concrete

Then at the door
The subtlest glance back
Betrays the display
That is your anger

Now I know
The only moment
More remarkable
Than this departure
Will be your return

I know also
The next time
There will be
No backward glance

But
God
Will I be grateful
For one  last chance

Continue reading Outbound ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #290
Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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Burrard Iron Works, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Irony ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #289

I am having
High-order, ill-mannered thoughts
Inconvenient truths
As the saying goes

Understatement that it is

And I have always
Wondered why
Understatement
Doesn’t have a better word

Overstatement has
Hyperbole
Pointed overstatement
An extraordinary word

Understatement
Seems so…
Well
Understated

But I’m lying
Not about understatement
I cannot overstate it
I cannot be hyperbolic

About understatement or lying

But I digress
I dissociate
Because I am lying
About having these

Thoughts

I’m not having them
I mean that emphatically
Which is also a better word
Than understatement

And still I digress
Dissociate
Dis-associate
Because I also most emphatically

Do not want to have them

So I digress
Again
Diverge
Obsess about other thoughts

Any other thoughts
Or no thoughts at all
Even better
Any activity which annihilates

Thought

Television
Computer games
Hours-long arguments
On social media

Irony
Another great word
A device used properly
Only as a hammer on an anvil

I have arguments
About high-order, ill-mannered thoughts
To avoid thinking about
A particular set of high-order, ill-mannered thoughts

But I digress
From my digression
Which speaks to the power
Of dissociation

I dis-associate
From dissociation

But those thoughts
I don’t want to have
They want to be had
They want to be thought

And they’re knocking at the door
Pounding at it really
Against the big metal door
Protecting my consciousness

Like a hammer on an anvil

Even now
I am buttressing the door
Keeping it shut
As it reverberates

I desperately want
To turn on the telly
Play a game
Or open Facebook

Continue reading Irony ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #289